


Here/Present

by Drowned_in_Feels



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Be More Chill - Ned Vizinni
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Awkwardness, First Meetings, High School, M/M, POV Alternating, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Strangers, boyf riends - Freeform, even though i put the book as a fandom, i'll explain it in the notes, this is a fic for the musical not the book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-12 08:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15991265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drowned_in_Feels/pseuds/Drowned_in_Feels
Summary: Jeremy and Michael are both hoping to meet their soulmate as soon as possible. But when it happens, it goes differently and a lot more awkwardly than they had expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I tagged the book as one of the fandoms because I stole one of the main ideas from it and I wanted to credit that. I do prefer the musical over the book but I loved this bit in the book so much that it inspired me to write this. 
> 
> Please note: I never went to an American high school so I'm not entirely sure if my depiction of it is 100% accurate. However, I did my best so please tell me if I got anything wrong.
> 
> Please also note: English is not my native language. I apologise for every grammar, spelling or punctuation mistake I might have made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy's POV

It was the first day of Jeremy's freshman year of high school. Naturally, he was nervous. Maybe, at this new school, he could finally leave everything that had been holding him back in middle school behind and he could become the cool and confident person he had always dreamed to be.

The rational part of his mind knew that he couldn't just change his entire personality from one day to another and that he would still be a dorky loser in high school but he didn't want to let go of his hopes just yet.

High school might also be the year in which Jeremy would meet his soulmate. Very few people meet theirs so early in their life but you never know. He actually knew a number of people who had already found their perfect match.

Well, he didn't really _know_ them. They had gone to the same school as him, he had passed them in the hallway. Him, looking down onto his converse as he quietly moved through the crowd. Them, leaning against their lockers, smiling, laughing, kissing and showing off their marks.

The marks were how you recognized your soulmate. When you meet them, the first words you ever hear them say appear on your left wrist as a tattoo. Jeremy thought the marks were cute, like a constant reminder of how you met, sort of immortalizing the memory.

Jeremy would love to meet his soulmate as soon as possible. He was a loner, he didn't have any close friends, and having a soulmate would mean that there would be at least one person in his life who would actually care about him.

But of course, he didn't want to get his hopes up too high or else he would just be disappointed if he didn't meet his soulmate.

The first period of his high school experience rolled around and Jeremy found himself sitting in an uncomfortable chair facing a blackboard that had the word 'Welcome' written on it in big letters. A young woman was standing in front of it. She was holding a folder that presumably had all the information in it that she was supposed to give to the group of students sitting in front of her.

The teacher pushed a strand of hair which had fallen from her bun back behind her ear and cleared her throat. “Welcome,” she smiled, “To your first day of high school! Now, before we do anything else I have to make sure that everybody that's supposed to be here is actually here.” She took out a paper from the folder and started calling names. “Anderson?”

A quiet voice from the back of the room responded. “Here.”

Jeremy hated the register. His last name always made it very awkward to answer when the teacher called it. When he answered with 'here' like everybody else, it would always confuse the teacher so in middle school, he had adapted to saying 'present' instead of 'here', which was quite awkward as well. There was no way around the awkwardness and even thinking about it made Jeremy deeply anxious.

“Canigula?”

“Here.”

“Dillinger?”

“Here.”

“Finch?”

“Here.”

“Goranski?”

“Here.”

“Heere?”

“Present.” Jeremy wanted to curl up in a corner and hide from everything. He kept his eyes fixed on the blackboard trying to block out the perception of his surroundings but he could still sense the other students turning around and looking at him. The teacher paused for a short moment to glance up at him but then continued as if nothing had happened. “Jenkins?”

“Here.” And everybody turned back around and stopped paying attention to Jeremy. He let out a silent sigh of relief and spent the rest of the register looking out of the window.

 

~~~

 

Half of his first day of high school was already over and Jeremy found himself standing in the cafeteria holding a tray of slightly gross cafeteria food. He didn't know where to sit. The room was already packed with people who had already claimed their usual seat from the year before. Jeremy envied the older students for the simple fact that they had already passed the nervous and awkward stage of trying to find friends and were able to just enjoy some time with them while he had to scout out some other disorientated freshmen who didn't know what they were doing either.

In the back of the room, he saw a table that only had one person sitting at it. He started walking towards it. He could manage introducing himself to one other person, he figured, maybe they would get along.

Jeremy stopped in front of the table. The boy sitting at it looked up. “Can I sit here?”, Jeremy asked trying to sound casual.

“Uhh, yeah, sure.” The other boy pulled his tray a bit more towards himself so that Jeremy could fit his tray onto the table opposite his. He sat down.

“So”, Jeremy attempted some small talk, “your first day of high school, too?”

“Yeah”, the boy replied, “we were together in first period, right?”

Jeremy tried to remember if he had seen the boy in front of him this morning. To be honest, he didn't really remember anyone from first period since he had been so busy wallowing in self-pity. He looked the boy up and down in an attempt to figure out if he had seen him before. He was short and that was basically his only remarkable feature. Jeremy had probably seen a thousand kids that looked like him in his life. There was nothing special about his face or his hair or the way he dressed. The boy could probably disappear in any crowd if he wanted to. So Jeremy really had no clue if they had met before so all he said was: “Uhhh, maybe.”

“Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. You're the one with the weird last name, right?”

Oh, great. Was this going to be the thing that he was going to be remembered for? In his nervousness Jeremy pushed up the sleeves of his shirt above his elbows. His glance got caught on his left wrist where something was out of the ordinary. The spot on his skin that had been all white and clean this morning when he had left his house was now marked with black letters.

Jeremy stared down at his wrist, trying to comprehend what he was seeing. He hadn't really introduced himself to anyone today, hadn't met anyone or exchanged words with anyone. How could he have met his soulmate without noticing it? His heartbeat was rapidly accelerating, his thoughts started racing through his head, making it impossible for him to actually read the mark. He tried to focus but the letters just kept blurring in front of his eyes.

“Oh, cool, you already have your mark!” The other boy was still trying to make conversation. “I wish I already knew my soulmate. I guess we can't all be that lucky.” He gave a nervous laugh. Jeremy wasn't really paying attention to him.

He took a deep breath and finally managed to decipher the black writing on his skin. 'Here', the letters spelled out.

He couldn't believe it. He had heard dozens of people say the word 'here' today. They did the register in every class, for god's sake! This was just another joke that the universe was playing on him. How was he supposed to possibly find his match? And more importantly, what had he done to deserve this? Why was the world screwing with him like this?

Jeremy began to panic. The other boy at the table could clearly see his distress and was saying something to him with a concerned look on his face but Jeremy couldn't quite hear what he was saying.

Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael's POV

Michael was sitting at a packed table in the cafeteria on his first day of high school. He had been one of the first students to make it to the cafeteria. Not on purpose, their teacher had just let them go earlier, so the whole room had been empty. Michael had filled up his tray with some unappetizing-looking food and had just sat down at the first table he saw. Since all the tables had been empty it hadn't mattered at all where he sat.

However, the cafeteria began to fill up rather quickly. Students were flooding in and crowding up the tables. Soon Michael found himself squished inbetween other people who had sat down with their already existing cliques, presumably taking up their usual spot from the year before and completely ignoring Michael's presence. He felt alone even though there were people all around him. So much for finding friends on the first day of his freshman year.

It wasn't like he was typically a loner. He knew loads of people that he got along with. But that was the problem. Those people weren't really his friends, they were just acquaintances. So yeah, Michael wished for a real friend, a best friend, maybe a soulmate even. He wanted someone that just understood him and cared for him. Was that too much to ask for?

Of course, Michael had two loving moms but they couldn't quite replace the love and connection he longed for from his peers. He didn't really know how to make friends either. Sure, he knew how to strike up a conversation and how to introduce himself but somehow, it never really went beyond that and he felt helpless in the face of trying to change that.

Michael wasn't normally that negative about his life. Maybe it was just this excluding group around him that made him feel lonelier than usual. He wearily picked at his food. He should probably try to be more optimistic. High school was a new start after all! Even if his first day might not go according to his hopes and dreams, there was still plenty of time ahead to find the right people to connect with!

With his new-found motivation he pushed up his sleeves and dug into his food. Or at least he intended to dig into his food when he noticed something strange on his wrist. Some black letters that had not been there before had appeared right where Michael had seen them on countless other couples.

He stared at his wrist dumbfounded. This was not how he had expected this to go. He had imagined to bump into somebody, or be introduced to a friend of a friend, and suddenly as their conversation would go on they would both simultaneously notice a black mark appearing on both of their wrists. Then, they would make eye contact and just _know_ that they were right for each other. He had not expected to be sitting in a crowded cafeteria and just casually realize that somewhere along the day he had encountered his perfect match _without even noticing it_.

He read his mark. It was only one word. 'Present', it said.

“Oh, you've got to be kidding me”, Michael muttered to himself. All day, in every class he had been to, the teachers had called the register. Every single student had always responded with the word 'here', except for one weirdo who couldn't even do that right. And that was the guy who was supposed to be his soulmate? Michael couldn't believe the universe would screw with him like that. The guy who had managed to embarrass himself with the first word he ever said in this school, who everyone had already put in their mental box of being a loser, that was supposed to be his other half?

Michael had to stop his train of thought. This wasn't fair towards the guy. He didn't even know him. And if the universe decided that they would go well together, surely there must be something to it. He should probably go and find him. But what should he say? He stopped himself before he could start to worry about that. He would figure that out when he got to it.

Michael tried to get up, which was hard considering all the other people he was sitting between. “Excuse me”, he mumbled as he squeezed himself out of the row of students sitting on his side of the table. They didn't even look at him. As soon as he stood, they simply closed the gap he had left between them without acknowledging him at all.

“What a bunch of douchebags”, Michael thought as he turned his back on them and looked around the cafeteria for his potential soulmate. Quicker than he had anticipated he spotted him in the back of the room sitting opposite some small kid. They were the only two people at the table. Michael was a little bit jealous.

He started walking across the room towards him. He was getting nervous. He hadn't thought this through. This was going to be his first ever conversation with his soulmate. What should he say? “Hi, I'm Micheal, let's fall madly in love?” No, that sounded stupid. He wondered if the other guy had already noticed his tattoo. And what would he say? Maybe there would be a magic moment, like in the movies, where something just clicks and both people realize that they're perfect for each other.

Michael arrived at the table. He was standing behind the guy. The other kid at the table looked up at him but his maybe-soulmate hadn't noticed him yet. His sleeves were pushed up though so that his mark was clearly visible, which meant that he must be thinking about the issue, too.

Michael mustered all the courage in his heart, took a deep breath and tapped on the other guy's shoulder. He turned around. In the morning, Michael hadn't really had the chance to properly look at the guy and now that he was directly looking at his face, he could not deny that he was undoubtedly pretty. But unluckily, nothing clicked when they made eye contact. Maybe that could still happen later.

“Hi”, Michael said. He didn't know how to continue. The other guy looked at him, confused and … distressed? Maybe that had nothing to do with him. “Uhm. So, uhh, my name is Michael and I'm y-your – uhhh.” He stopped. He couldn't just introduce himself as somebody's soulmate. He would sound crazy. Instead, he turned his wrist around so that the other guy could see his mark. He hoped that would be enough for him to understand.

Apparently, it was enough for the other boy at the table to understand because he could hear him mumble something along the lines of “I should probably go” before getting up and leaving the two of them alone. Michael didn't pay much attention to him. His eyes were fixed on the boy sitting in front of him who was blankly staring at Michael's wrist, probably trying to figure out what was going on.

Without saying a word he looked back up at Michael and held up his left wrist in return so that he could read his mark. 'Here', it said. The guy swallowed hard, his adam's apple bobbing in his throat. “Do you maybe want to sit down?”, he asked in a weak voice.

Michael nodded and sat down opposite him. This was really not how he thought this was going to go. He had been hoping for a romantic moment and now they were just kind of awkwardly sitting across from each other at a cafeteria table. And the other guy was clearly uncomfortable, nervous, if not on the brink of having a meltdown. This was probably the opposite of romance.

Michael put his arm on the table so that the other boy could still see his mark. He gestured at it. “So, I figured you must be the one because you're the only one that didn't say 'here' today.” Michael laughed nervously. He tried making conversation in order to diffuse the tension but it did not work very well.

The other boy put his arm on the table so that their wrists lay right next to each other. When he spoke he didn't look at Michael but at their joined wrists. “I have no way of knowing for sure that you are the one because I have heard so many people say the word 'here' today but I guess I'll just have to take your word for it.” He looked up at Michael. His face was full or sorrow. Clearly, this wasn't how he had imagined to meet his soulmate either. But Michael felt they should make the best out of it, starting with convincing this boy that it was all going to be alright.

That was when Michael realized that he still didn't know his name. “First of all, what's your first name?”

“Jeremy”, he answered, slightly confused by the sudden turn in the conversation.

“Jeremy, listen.” Michael leaned forward to give his words more importance. “I know this is not the ideal first meeting. Everything's a bit confused, it's not special in any way and we both don't really know what we're supposed to do now. But I promise you that it's all going to be alright. I have proof right here”, he pointed at his wrist, “that you're the one for me and even though your mark doesn't scream my name, I'm the one for you too. That's what the universe decided but it can only be true if you believe in it as well, okay? I know that you don't know me and I don't know you and at the moment we don't feel anything for each other and this whole soulmate thing feels like a stupid joke but I am sure”, he paused to make his following words sound more powerful, “that we can make this work.” He smiled and took Jeremy's hand.

Jeremy smiled back at him weakly and nodded. “Okay”, he said. Michael wasn't convinced that he was fully on board though. This was going to be a lot of work.

“So”, Michael wasn't sure about what he should say next. He had not thought this far. Introduce himself, that had been the plan. Now, what would come next? “Do you want to hang out after school?”

“Uhh, yeah sure.”

Michael was aware that this was all going very quickly. At the beginning of his lunch break, he had been just another lonely freshman and now he had a date – No, it wasn't a date, they were just going to hang out – with his soulmate. “Cool. You can come to my place.”

“Cool, I'll, uhh, meet you after school.” Jeremy was clearly kind of overwhelmed by what was going on as well. That was understandable. Imagine some guy just randomly walking up to you and declaring himself as your soulmate. Sounds crazy, right? But that was all that they were at the moment, just some guys that the universe had pushed towards each other, leaving it all to them to figure out. Michael really hoped it would all work out for the best.

 

~~~

 

“So, this is my room.” Michael opened the door for Jeremy. If he had known yesterday that he would be bringing his soulmate here today, he would have tidied up. But this wasn't the most embarrassing moment of the day so he figured it would be alright. And his room was probably the only messy space in the entire house, since his moms kept the rest of it very clean. They weren't home at the moment, which Michael was grateful for, not because he was embarrassed about having two moms. No, he loved them. But he didn't want to explain to them who Jeremy was just yet.

“Please don't mind the mess”, Michael tried to excuse himself.

“It's okay. My room's a mess, too.” Jeremy looked around the room, taking in every detail, examining every poster on Michael's wall and every object on his desk. Michael felt nervous. He felt like he was being investigated, only that he was standing right there witnessing the investigation happen.

He didn't know what to think of Jeremy. He was a weird kid. But then again, Michael was a weird kid, too. They hadn't spoken much on the way here from school so Michael knew practically nothing about him. And he didn't want to just start asking him loads of questions. He didn't feel like his soulmate at all. At the moment he was just some random guy he had brought home; they had no connection whatsoever. Michael let out a sigh, hoping Jeremy wouldn't notice.

But Jeremy seemed to be focusing on all the stuff in his room. In this moment he was staring at his Weird Al poster that was hanging above his bed, right next to Bob Marley. Jeremy pointed at it. “You like Weird Al?”

“Yeah”, Michael replied, “I wouldn't have a poster of him if I didn't like him, would I?” He tried to be funny and he could actually see Jeremy crack a smile in response. “I like him as well.”

“Really? that's so cool!” Michael sat down to make the situation less uncomfortable. “What else are you into? Like, what are your hobbies?”

Jeremy hesitated. “Uhhh.” He looked at the ceiling, trying to think, then back down at Michael. “I like video games.”

“Me too! I love video games. Wanna check out my collection?” He got up and walked over to a corner of the room where he had a massive stack of video game cases piled up against the wall. Jeremy followed him.

“Yo, no way!”, Jeremy exclaimed, “You play Apocalypse of the Damned? That's my favourite game!”

“For real? I love that game!” He smiled at Jeremy who smiled back in return. Maybe they did have more in common than Michael had originally suspected. Maybe they could get along. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad after all.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy's POV
> 
> ~3 years later~

It was the first day of Jeremy's senior year of high school and he couldn't be happier. It was very early in the morning, the alarm clock hadn't even gone off yet and he was lying in bed with Michael who was still fast asleep.

Typically, Jeremy wasn't the type to wake up so early but he didn't want to try and fall asleep again when he had his boyfriend sleeping soundly in his arms. Michael was lying on his side, Jeremy behind his back, his arms wrapped around him and holding him gently. This right there was precisely what happiness meant for him.

His dad had not been so keen on him sleeping over that very night since they had to go to school the next morning but Jeremy had been able to convince him otherwise. He had brought up some compelling arguments like the fact that he had spent most nights of the summer at Michael's place already so one more wouldn't make much of a difference or that Michael picked him up in his P.T. Cruiser every morning anyways so it would just be more convenient if he was already at his place. Eventually, his dad had given in. Maybe it was due to his friendship with Michael's moms who had assured him they would make sure that Jeremy and Michael got to bed early.

It didn't matter after all at what time they were told to stop playing video games, it only mattered that they could start their last year of high school together. They didn't know yet what would come afterwards, what colleges they would go to, so they just wanted to spend as much time together as they possibly could.

If anybody had told Jeremy three years ago when he met Michael that one day he would feel this way about him, he would have laughed. He often thought back to that day, his first day of high school. He remembered how nervous he was about everything. How he had a minor meltdown when he discovered his mark. How this random guy showed up and decided that they were soulmates. How they felt like complete strangers and nothing made sense. And now, years later, everything made perfect sense.

Being with Michael just felt _right_. It made him feel complete and whenever he wasn't with him, it felt like there was a physical part of him missing. Hugging him, kissing him, there was no better feeling in this world. And he knew that as long as Michael was with him, he could do anything. Hell, he even defeated the SQUIP with his help!

Michael started stirring in his arms but Jeremy didn't release him from his grip. He sleepily opened his eyes. “Good morning, sunshine”, Jeremy whispered and pressed a gentle kiss onto his cheek.

Michael smiled and closed his eyes again. He shuffled his body against Jeremy's so that they were pressed together tighter than before. “Good morning”, he mumbled, “we still got time till we have to get up?”

“Mhm”, Jeremy affirmed, squeezing Michael's body in a loving hug.

“Good.”, Michael replied. He reached out to his nightstand, feeling for his glasses. In the process, he slightly loosened their hug. When he found them he pushed them onto his face and turned around to look at Jeremy. Their faces were not even inches apart from each other. “I love seeing you first thing in the morning”, Michael whispered.

“Me too”, Jeremy replied. He then swiftly closed the gap between them and gently brushed his lips against Michael's. He could feel his lips curl up in a smile and couldn't help but smile himself. This feeling of giddiness he felt right now, that was all he wanted for the rest of his life.

Jeremy leaned his forehead against Michael's and closed his eyes. They were breathing the same air. Jeremy had always thought that it must be kind of disgusting to inhale somebody else's used up oxygen but he found out that as long as the other person was Michael, he didn't mind at all. Quite the contrary, being so close to Michael that their heartbeats and breathing rhythms aligned was probably one of the parts of being in a relationship that he enjoyed the most.

“You know”, Jeremy whispered, barely audible, “that you are my favourite person.”

In response, Michael pressed their lips together. Given that they were both still a bit sleep-drunk, it was messy. They were simply mushing their mouths together while giggling at the same time.

Jeremy moved his hand down to find Michael's and laced their fingers together. For some reason, this small gesture felt very significant to him. It meant that they belonged together, come what may.

With his free hand, Michael reached down towards their entangled hands but stopped just short on Jeremy's forearm. He softly brushed his thumb across his mark and then moved up to caress Jeremy's skin above the mark where he had a Pacman drawing tattooed into his skin. Michael had the same design on his arm, right above his mark. They had gotten the matching tattoos on their first anniversary as a confirmation that the marks had been right.

“Do you remember the day?”, Jeremy merely breathed the words.

“You were such a sissy.” They both laughed. It was true. Jeremy had been quite squeamish about the whole needle thing. But he was glad that he didn't chicken out that day. He loved having not one, but two marks on his skin to constantly remind him of his love for his soulmate.

Jeremy kissed him again, this time stronger and more demanding. Michael pushed his lips harder onto Jeremy's in response. Jeremy let his tongue slide between his lips; Michael tasted like early morning breath but Jeremy didn't mind. He figured he probably didn't taste any better at the moment either.

Michael's hand was no longer tracing Jeremy's forearm. Instead he had placed both of his hands on Jeremy's back, pulling him closer until there was no more space left between them. Jeremy shifted his body weight so that he was now lying on top of Michael.

Jeremy ran his fingers through Michael's short hair, continuing to kiss him passionately. God, he loved him so much. He loved spending time with him. He loved all of his little quirks and mannerisms. He loved being close to him. He loved the feel of his body underneath his and the feel of his hands running up and down on his back. He loved the smell of his skin and how his bed was full of it. He loved all -

The alarm clock went off, startling them both. Michael laughed heartily and reached for the button to turn it off. Jeremy groaned and buried his face in Michael's shoulder.

“Oh, come on now”, Michael said with a grin on his face, “we don't want to be late today, now, do we?”

Jeremy responded with an even louder groan which was muffled by Michael's shoulder. He hugged him tight, not intending to ever let go. Michael laughed and ruffled through his hair. “Okay, maybe we got a little more time.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Originally, this was planned to be a two-parter with a word count of roughly 3.5k but I'm happy with what it turned into. :)
> 
> Please leave some feedback!


End file.
